Edda, the littlest Valkyrie, leaves the magical land of Asgard to attend school in hopes of making a friend her own age, but feels like an outcast until she finds her courage and learns that being different makes her special.
Edda
School
Be Patient, Abdul
With the help of his younger sister, 7-year-old Abdul raises money to go to school by selling oranges in the marketplace in Sierra Leone.
Elizabeti’s School
On her first day at school, Elizabeti misses her family and wonders if it wouldn’t be better to stay home, but the young Tanzanian girl discovers the joy of learning and finds a pleasant surprise when she gets home.
Just Another Ordinary Day
Amanda’s ordinary day has her riding to school with a Tyrannosaurus rex, talking after lunch with an alien, sailing a pirate ship at the school library, and riding home on an elephant.
Armando and the Blue Tarp School
Armando and his father are trash-pickers in Tijuana, Mexico, but when Senor David brings his “school”–a blue tarp set down near the garbage dump–to their neighborhood, Armando’s father decides that he must attend classes and learn. Based on a true story.
Pink Fire Trucks / Los camiones de bomberos de color rosado
Spirited Gladys Elizabeth is at it again! It is career day at school and Gladys Elizabeth boldly announces that she is going to be a firegirl. After a classmate tells her that girls cannot fight fires.
Separate Is Never Equal
“Years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case of 1946 in California”–
Lupita’s First Dance / El Primer Baile De Lupita
Lupita is excited about dancing la raspa, a Mexican folk dance, with her first-grade class at a celebration of Children’s Day. But she’s devastated when she learns right before the show that her partner Ernesto sprained his right ankle.
Lupita’s First Dance / El Primer Baile De Lupita has been discussed in My Take/Your Take for September 2020.
I Am Rene, The Boy/ Soy Rene, El Nino
When René learns that in the United States his name is also a girl’s name, he does some research and relates the name’s meaning and letters to his homeland of El Salvador and the things that make him special.
Community Soup
In a garden outside a Kenyan schoolhouse, children are working together to harvest the vegetables they have grown and make them into a soup for everyone to share. But Kioni is having trouble: her herd of mischievous goats followed her to school today and they are trying to eat all the vegetables. The ensuing chaos caused by the goats is cleverly resolved by the children, making their vegetable soup very tasty while saving Kioni’s four-legged intruders at the same time.